Happy New Year... Oh yea that was 24 days ago

Hello fellow toy collectors. I have to make a sad admission, well it's obvious that I suck when I comes to updating and posting here on my blog. It is really tough to find the time to shoot, photo edit/do production, then post up with some heart felt "toy memories" to share. That said I'm not going to give up on creating my own little online toy universe, but I will be posting more onto my Flickr page (see link below and to the right).

I will still be posting here and I have some ideas in my head, but look mainly for my older 80's toys on here where I can comment on them and new stuff will just be visually cataloged on Flickr.

Don't look now but here come some photos!

Vintage G1 Wheeljack, incomplete as purchase from Ebay

Several months ago I purchased a cheap lot of G1 Transformers and this one was included. After selling the other 2 I ended up keeping Wheeljack since I don't have one and always loved his car mode. My younger brother had Wheeljack so I am familiar with him, and his awkward robot mode but I still really like this toy. It's condition is good, but he lacks a lot of stickers and the 2 spoiler parts for the rear, but this still displays very well.

Wheeljack's alt mode is a Lancia Stratos Turbo race car,
from the Diaclone toy line to the US in 1984

I really like the head sculpt on this guy, it's very different than the usual Autobot face. Not much to say about the robot mode or transformation, but he is fun to mess around with. Did I mention he has a great car mode?

Ahh G1, it still kicks ass ;)

Autobot Optimus Prime

Vintage G1 Optimus Prime

It was sometime around 1984, a boy is given a Sears "Wishbook" to circle what he wants for Christmas. Within those pages was the mighty Optimus Prime you see in these pictures. Few toys are as memorable as this guy, even though its almost too stereotypical to like the leader the best and I usually like the lesser know characters better, I have to say I love this toy. As I see him now this is still a great figure, well proportioned with great articulation for the time. His construction of metal and chrome are sorrily missed today.

I'm just going to let the pictures speak for themselves, this is such a great toy.



Prime's alt mode is a 1970s Freightliner FL86 Cab-over-Engine triple-axle semi trailer truck.

Optimus Prime was part of Takara's 1983 Diaclone toy line under the name "Battle Convoy." He was designed by Hiroyuki Obara and Shoji Kawamori (famous for his work in Macross)



There's a lot of play value here with the opened trailer, makes me wish I had a few micro men.

I was very excited to purchase my first 3rd party Transformer set, and it only made sense to get something like this to upgrade my Prime. This set is only 20$, and a great deal!


I think the Energy axe is a great addition to the set, it is a well made piece with good detail.

Above we have the matrix installed in the chest with the custom adapter and the new hands are also in place.

Darkest hour... LIT!

Finally the set comes with an upgraded ion blaster, it looks good but the mold on mine could have used some refinement. Again over all the BTS 03 kit is a great deal, especially for people who are missing the parts to their G1 Prime.

Autobot "Mini-bots"

Vintage G1 Mini Bots
Autobots from left to right - Windcharger, Outback, Pipes, Wheelie,

Powerglide, Gears, Beachcomber, Warpath and Brawn

These Transformers are part of the Japanese Microman/MicroChange line released 1983.

Below I have detailed shots of my favorite mini-bots

Autobot Windcharger

This was the one that started it all for me, my first Transformer. As a red sports car I can see why this guy would appeal to a boy. I really don't remember too much about the ramp up to the release of the first Transformers toys, but I picked this up in a small toy store like KB in the mall in 84' I guess.

Windchargers alt mode is a 80's Pontiac Trans Am, well a very distorted and bloated one. They were pretty popular "cool" cars at the time, but now people don't think too much of them. Thankfully he was reborn as a Honda S 2000 for the Alternators line.

Autobot Powerglide

For a mini bot Powerglide makes a cool robot, if only they had the ability at the time to give him separating feet. Still, his arms have a lot of pose ability, the head rotates and proportions are nice. Transformation is very different from most other mini bots where the arms just pop out and legs flip down. The way the wings fold up to the body and the arms come out is cool.

The A-10 Thunderbolt is one of my favorite warplanes, it's so different looking and full of bad ass-ness! The mould has great details in alt mode, the big nose cannon is well represented.

Autobot Warpath

Warpath is one of the bots that suffers from a weak robot mode, but his tank mode is very cool. I allways did like how his head flips up from the turret.

Warpath is a M551 Sheridan light tank, and he looks great in this mode. The turret rotates all the way around, and even the simple use of color works well.

"Bonus pic"
Autobot Outback doing the robot, lol!

Autobot Inferno

Vintage G1 Inferno

Today I'm uploading one of my last original "Car Robo" style Transformers, Inferno. I do have a couple reissues and many more G1 Transformers to add, so I have plenty to still do. These early type of Transformers are really my favorite, Inferno is a worthy figure to kind of cap things off.

For what must have been a deluxe size figure he's big, has a ton of detail, chrome, rubber tires, basically everything cool about the original Japanese line shows up here. Diecast only shows up in the feet but with everything else they put into Inferno you wouldn't care. He really seems to be a more expensive Transformer compared to the other Autobots but I don't think that was the case.

Inferno has a simple but neat transformation, which gives him nice arm articulation. His body is well proportioned but the lower half only moves at the feet as part of the truck mode. Each of his forearms contains a spring-loaded missile launcher, so he can fire his own fists or silver missiles. The white "wing" nozzles are separate parts you attach after the transform, like the fists, but I really like the extra details these parts add so I don't mind that. In many ways he is like another Optimus Prime, only with less metal.



Inferno transforms into a Mitsubishi Fuso firetruck. Truck mode still looks great even today.


The ladder is fully extendable, pulling out into 3 sections. I remember this toy being fun to play with, and even took him to a park/picnic the day I got him. Thankfully no damage or loss of parts occurred.

Autobots Rewind and Steeljaw

Vintage G1 Rewind and Steeljaw

Here we have my other 2 mini cassette transformers, and these went with my Blaster figure (who is the Autobots tape deck). I never had Decepticon Soundwave, my brother did I think, but I always liked Blasters character from the Transformers animated movie. Steeljaw (the yellow lion) is defiantly the coolest one out of this set, and to me the best Autobot tape. Something about the robot mode Rewind never looked right to me, he looks kind of cheap with his lack of detail, diecast or anything cool really. The Soundwave's older tape robots (Rumble and Frenzy) were way cooler than Blasters.



In trying to research these toys a bit I found little info, except that the gold chromed weapons were the earliest and actually rare variants. I never knew they didn't come in gold, but they definitely look better in gold.

Steeljaw's transformation is nice, although being a cassette tape former he is very thin. There are nice details moulded in the "lion" side and he is very well proportioned. The legs are metal which is a nice contrast to the yellow plastic and gold gun packs. A strange thing I never noticed is on the "tape" side the graphic maine is flipped on the wrong side, if you flip over the tape to the lion side the colored maine is on Steeljaws back end.


With regard to Rewind, well there is not much to say about him. There is some nice articulation in the legs but over all this guy is pretty dull. The arms are bad, the head has little detail, he does have some nice shiny guns though.

Decepticons Laserbeak and Frenzy

Vintage G1 Laserbeak and Frenzy

Tape modes, these toys still impress me with the design and transformation. Also with the small size of these guys they were easily snuck into your pocket so you could have some Transformer fun anywhere you went.

Both robot modes have good articulation, especially Frenzy. The Frenzy (and other tape bot Rumble) are to me some of the best Transformer designs - to go from a thin square "tape" to these robots was and still is impressive to me. When you add in the nice chrome accessories and other details it's no wonder the cassette tape style transformers are huge fan favorites.


Frenzy sports nice gold chrome accents on his chest and waist, also cool silver foil stickers are seen detailing one side of the tape mode.


Just a simple shot of Frenzy showing off some of his mad G1 articulation skills!

Originally from the Microchange line "Micro Cassette Robo Condor", Laserbeak transforms into a cassette that can fit into the tape door of Soundwave (or Blaster). He was released in a two-pack with Frenzy. Frenzy's "Cassettron" mould was first released in Japan in 1984, but they were sold separately and each one came with a clear plastic tape case/holder.